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Facebook fans fuel FAGGOT FURY firestorm

It's just a really offal mix up over British meatballs ... bitch

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Britain's humble and frankly disgusting offal-based meatball – the faggot – led to one man being temporarily chucked off Facebook, after Americans became outraged by what they believed to be blatant gay-hating behaviour on the free content ad network.

The sorry tale started, according to the Sun newspaper, when 54-year-old Robert Wilkes found his access to Facebook had been barred for 12 hours following an "I like faggots" comment he posted on the site.

It would appear that other Facebookers had complained about his use of what they considered to be "homophobic language". In the US, the word "faggot" is considered to be deeply offensive and seen as a direct attack on gay people.

Wilkes insisted he was innocent, however. "It may have a different meaning in America but I used it in a food context," he said.

In fairness to our stateside cousins, the Oxford English Dictionary fails to offer up the definition of faggot as it is known in parts of Blighty.

It does say that the word, among other things, is used as slang for a homosexual male. Faggot can also define a bundle of sticks that are used as fuel to make a fire.

Menlo Park-based Facebook was recently attacked by UK Prime Minister David Cameron after complaints mounted up about a video - which apparently showed someone being beheaded - posted on the network.

Facebook eventually removed the clip, but the company does not prevent all sorts of dodgy content from being uploaded on to the site. This means that nasty stuff can be easily found on Facebook.

It's only when someone moans about individual posts that the Mark Zuckerberg-run outfit then intervenes to remove material, and only then if it is found to break its community rules of engagement. ®